More than 3300 BMX Racing athletes from 50 nations are in Copenhagen this week to compete in the 2025 UCI BMX Racing World Championships.
While athletes in the Championship categories (Women and Men Junior, Under 23 and Elite) will take to the track on Saturday and Sunday 2-3 August, action in the Danish capital has been underway since Monday with the Challenge and Masters categories. Rainbow jerseys of UCI World Champion are awarded for categories ranging from boys and girls aged 8 and over to Men 50 years and over, and Women 40 years and over.
Following the BMX Racing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the popularity of the discipline has hit new records. France has the largest delegation in Copenhagen this week (449 athletes) followed by the Netherlands (331), Great Britain (318), the USA (311) and hosts Denmark (235), all contributing to the total of 3317 registered riders.
Set for spectacular action
Home of the Copenhagen BMX Club, the city’s 400-metre outdoor track already hosted the UCI World Championships for BMX Racing in 2011 as well as rounds of the then-called UCI BMX Supercross World Cup from 2008 to 2010.
The track features new starting ramps, enlarged corners and improved surfaces – all designed to support the ever-increasing speeds and technical demands of today’s BMX Racing.
Young talent to the fore
The Juniors will be the first to take to the track in the Championship racing this weekend, some of them having dominated proceedings in Challenge classes previous years. Competition is often wide open in the Junior category as 17-18-year-olds come to grips with international racing at this level.
In Under 23 racing, UCI World Champion Veronika Stūriška is back to defend the women’s title she won in Rock Hill, USA. However, the Latvian can expect competition from riders such as Great Britain’s Emily Hutt, silver medalist in 2023 and 2024, and the Netherlands’ Michelle Wissing, currently leading the UCI BMX Racing World Cup standings after four rounds.
A big favourite in the Men Under 23 category is Jason Noordam. The Dutchman has had a stellar year so far, with three wins and a second place at the four UCI BMX Racing World Cup rounds held to date. Although he says he takes it “one race at a time”, a victory in Copenhagen must clearly be at the top of his ‘to do’ list.
Women Elite: rainbow jersey to change hands
The Women Elite rainbow jersey will change hands this year, as 2024 UCI World Champion Alise Willoughby (USA) is focusing on her newborn son. Meanwhile multiple UCI World Champion Mariana Pajón will also be absent as she prepares to welcome a baby to the world.
Of the world stars who are expected in Denmark, Great Britain’s Bethany Shriever will be hard to beat if the recent UEC European Championships are an indication of raw speed. There’s no doubt she wants to turn that UEC jersey into the UCI rainbow jersey this weekend to regain the title she won in 2021 and 2023. But then, there’s always the Australian Saya Sakakibara to contend with – and when she’s on form, she’s on fire!
Other strong podium candidates for 2025 include 2024 Olympic bronze medalist and UCI World Championships silver medalist Zoé Claessens (SUI), and Dutch sisters Laura and Merel Smulders, who are both regulars on international podiums, including UCI BMX Racing World Championships, and who both have an Olympic bronze medal to their name (Laura from London 2012 and Merel from Tokyo 2020). Other contenders include former Under 23 UCI World Champion and local favourite Malene Kejlstrup, and Canadian Molly Simpson, who claimed her first UCI BMX Racing World Cup Women Elite victory this year.
Men Elite: French favourites
Anyone supporting France can have a lot to look forward to in the Men Elite racing. With riders of the calibre of Joris Daudet, Sylvain André, Arthur Pilard, Léo Garoyan, and Théo Thouin on their roster, they’ve got big chances for a podium spot, or two… maybe even three, as in the 2024 Paris Olympic final. Or could this be the year when fortune finally falls Eddy Clerté’s way?
But then there’s a whole world of talent from outside France – with riders such as Australia’s Izaac Kennedy, Cédric Butti from Switzerland, New Zealand’s Rico Bearman, and the American Cameron Wood – who all think their time has come: time to earn the rainbow jersey.
Whichever riders are destined to succeed in the Men Elite and other classes, they’ll need to get that rhythm right on the first and the third straights of this Copenhagen track, because for anyone losing momentum on those two sections, the dream can quickly disappear.
Round 1, Last Chance Qualifiers and 1/8th finals take place on Saturday afternoon, followed by the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals on Sunday, from noon CET.